Bored by the classroom, Maurice McFalls dropped out of high school and entered the workforce, finding work in door-to-door sales, a pawn shop and as a truck driver.

But as the years passed, he realized he needed to do more to provide for his wife and two small boys. With the help of a United Way program, he completed a high school equivalency program at Des Moines Area Community College and is now studying full time at DMACC, with an acceptance letter to Iowa State University.

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McFalls, 30, is still driving a truck. But he’s earning about $10,000 more than in his previous job. And all the workers in his division will receive a pay raise this month.

"It’s going to help get us to that next step where we can purchase our first home," he said.

New data released by the U.S. Census Bureau show that McFalls is not alone: Household income in the Des Moines metro and most parts of the state have increased between 2012 and 2017, five-year averages show.

Poverty rates also have declined in most Iowa counties, and the numbers of Iowans considered self-sufficient are improving.

Lyon County, where the median household income was $62,012 for the five-year period ending in 2017.

Palo Alto County, where the median household income was $50,470 for the five-year period ending in 2017.

O'Brien County, where the median household income was $56,314 for the five-year period ending in 2017.

Also in northwest Iowa, Sioux County saw its household incomes improve nearly 20 percent over that time period, increasing to $66,022 by 2017.

Iowa State University economist Dave Swenson said he would have expected highly agriculture-dependent counties to struggle the most with income levels because of low commodity prices.

But Sioux County's economy is buffeted by a robust animal-feeding industry, strong population growth and a relatively large manufacturing sector.

"That county is always going to stand out somewhat distinctly," he said.

Swenson theorized that Lyon County's income growth came mostly from its neighbor in South Dakota.

"Sioux Falls is bleeding over into Lyon County," he said. "It's growing."

But he had no easy explanation for the strong income growth in O'Brien County.

"I just don't know what's going on in O'Brien County," Swenson said.

The top and bottom 5 counties for income growth:

Top 5

Lyon

Palo Alto

O’Brien

Hamilton

Sioux

Bottom 5

Jefferson

Monona

Franklin

Humboldt

Worth

Poverty rates a mixed bag across Iowa

United Way of Central Iowa has closely monitored poverty rates for its three central Iowa counties: Polk, Dallas and Warren.

In 2016, when the traditionally stubborn figure finally began to improve, officials thought it could have been written off as a fluke. But then the figure declined again for the five-year period ending in 2017.

"Now we're seeing a trend," said Elisabeth Buck, president of United Way of Central Iowa. "I think we're seeing that we're trending in the right direction."

Their calculations show that 4,245 fewer people in Polk, Dallas, and Warren counties were living below the federal poverty level in 2017 than two years earlier. Impoverished children decreased by 1,952 and the poverty rate for working-aged individuals decreased by 3,000 people.

The federal government considers individuals to live in poverty if they earn less than $12,140 each year. The rate varies based on family size: It's $25,100 for a family of four.

Across Iowa, 52 counties saw their poverty rates decrease between the five-year period ending in 2012 and the five-year period ending in 2017; 47 counties saw increases in their poverty rate.

Swenson said poverty rates generally improve in a booming economy. A certain portion of the impoverished population is considered intractable, but the rate improves as more people find employment.

Still, some of the changes in the poverty rate were small enough that they fall within the number's statistical margin of error. Swenson said that's true for Polk County, which saw the poverty rate fall from 12.4 percent in the five-year period ending in 2016 to 11.7 percent for the five-year period ending in 2017.

"You can't say that change is statistically significant," he said. "That's us as analysts being fussy with the numbers. But we are."

Self-sufficiency on the rise in central Iowa

It leaves out large swaths of the working poor who earn above the federal poverty rate but may not earn enough to cover the costs of food, housing and health care.

United Way of Central Iowa uses 250 percent of the poverty line — about $30,350 for an individual — as its cutoff for self-sufficiency.

Rates of self-sufficiency for people in Polk, Dallas and Warren counties declined from 2011 to 2015. But those numbers have seen two years of improvement, with two-thirds of central Iowans meeting the threshold in the five-year period ending in 2017.

But even as the organization celebrates gains, Buck said it's clear that problems remain.

"That is not good enough for our community. We can do better," Buck said. "When you think about all the things we have going on, all the assets that we have here, having 33 percent who are struggling and can't make ends meet is not good enough."

Buck noted that those who struggle to afford the costs of living are working.

"These are families and individuals who are really working hard to get ahead," she said. "But because of wage levels, because of child care costs, housing costs, they struggle to get to financial self-sufficiency."

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